Requirements
by Sammy Heroes
Summary: The Cloak of Levitation was a fickle thing. She would not take a chosen one because they wanted to be chosen. She preferred the exceptional type. She was done with ordinary sorcerers. She was done with being lonely. (Rated T to be safe, oneshot)


**Requirements:**

 **Summary: The Cloak of Levitation was a fickle thing. She would not take a chosen one because they wanted to be chosen. She preferred the exceptional type. She was done with ordinary sorcerers. She was done with being lonely.**

Two hundred years of waiting inside a glass box could make anyone go crazy. But the Cloak was patient.

She had learned that with her first chosen one over a thousand years ago. It was a young woman. Gentle, kind and good hearted, her best quality had been being exceptionally _intelligent_. Maybe too intelligent, but who cared? And she might have been the most beautiful soul Cloak had the pleasure to meet. She had an air of playful mischief around her. It was what had gotten her in enough trouble to last an eternity. But Cloak loved her first chosen one despite her faults, because deep inside, under some good old arrogance, she was a good person. And she had given her a _name_ that due to so many years and so many chosen ones, she had forgotten it. Cloak had met her when they were both very young. Young and naïve. They lasted many years together. But all it took was one single mistake from Cloak's part and the amazing human being that was her first chosen one ceased to exist. Her name had been Aurora.

Cloak was not a living breathing creature, so she couldn't cry. But she knew very well what emotions were, so she mourned her chosen's death. She would never forget who she had considered her first friend.

But life had to go on. So a decade after her first chosen one, Cloak believed she was ready to take another. But that one hadn't even lasted two years for being plain stupid. If he had only listened to her, then maybe he wouldn't have been eaten by giant space worms. Maybe she had been desperate for companionship after so many years. So she had picked the first sorcerer she saw. And boy, had that been a mistake.

Years afterwards, when Cloak had gained some experience, she finally took another chosen one. A young man that probably didn't reach twenty five. He was quiet and shy, but he was _brave_. He and Cloak never spoke much, as much as an actual conversation could go with her, but she could tell that the young man, Chang, admired her and trusted her. And boy did she trusted the young one without a second thought. They had many adventures together. Cloak would often had to save his sorry ass, but at the end, it was all good. Then Chang got sick when he was thirty two. A terrible sickness that ancient medicine could not cure. He died in his sleep without a last goodbye. All she could do was to honor his memory by remembering the good times they had together.

Many new sorcerers came and went through the years. But their memories were not memorable for she had wrongly chosen some of them. They were ordinary. But that was until Tania, a native from the central parts of the undiscovered new world that centuries later would have been _re_ -discovered by Christopher Columbus. But that was another story. Tania had found a hidden portal in her land that brought her to the Ancient One, far away from home. Cloak had estimated her to be sixteen; yes, Tania had been her youngest chosen one up to date. It hadn't been her different appearance that attracted Cloak to the girl. It had been that Tania was _extraordinary_. Oh, so extraordinary in so many ways. So gifted, so full of life. Cloak had stayed with her until Tania's elder years. She had stayed with her friend until she died of old age. At least Cloak knew that she had done her job with Tania and that she got to live a full life, even becoming grandmother at one point. Tania was and forever will be the child, as Cloak liked to refer to her.

During the following years many sorcerers would visit Cloak, hoping to get chosen. By now, Cloak was over five hundred years. Many were arrogant, some were simply dumb. There was a time she was about to choose a new wielder, but she dumped him right in the spot when she noticed that stupidity practically oozed from him. Others… well… Cloak had decided to forget about her many bad choices. Bad choices she made all because she couldn't stand being lonely. Some she had chosen had simply thought of her as a mere object to show off. The nerve! But at the end of the day, they were simply bad choices she rather forget about.

Some had been good, but none of those had clicked with her like the old Master Dimitri had been. His exact age, Cloak wasn't sure. All she knew was that he was old. Very old. And the old man was _disciplined_. But was he a bad choice? Cloak wasn't sure about either even though he had been a good friend and a good man. All she knew was that the old master, even when he walked with a cane, was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. His mandala shields were absolutely legendary. She did remembered that pulling on his long white beard had been a pastime of hers, all because she loved to see him get cranky, because he was hilarious. As for the possibility of him being a bad choice, he had a tendency to explore dark magic. But what saved him from being such choice was that he knew how to fight off the darkness. Even though their time had been brief, Cloak had to admit that if she had a heart, she would have died of a heart attack after so many risky situations Master Dimitri put them through. The bastard never seemed to mind though. People say that bad things last longer and Cloak was pretty sure that if he had been bad enough, he would have been immortal.

After Master Dimitri had gone to a better place, Cloak decided to take her time, even if it meant being alone. It took her a century and a half before she laid eyes on her next chosen one. Mary Anne was a serious woman in her mid-forties. She looked cold, showed no emotion, she had no friends. But she was _hopeful_. She held hope for a better world, for a world that wouldn't treat women like she had been treated. And that was why Cloak liked her so much. She had a noble cause. And she died while protecting a pair of girls about to be taken advantage of. Because she ordered Cloak to protect them instead of her.

After Cloak had endured so much pain in losing her dear friends during her existence, she was about to call it quits when she sensed him. He wasn't young, but not that old either. He was a quiet man who preferred to observe first and then take action. He had been exploring the sanctuary with two other friends when he laid eyes on her red fabric. He seemed fascinated by her, but he didn't seem to know who she was. Curious about him, she watched him walk away from his friends, who were admiring a sword of sorts. He grabbed a book and searched through it until he found what he was looking for. He went back to her and admired her. That's when she saw it. He was a _determined_ man with a heart of gold. That's how Ernesto became her last chosen one. But like the others before him, he left towards another life.

She decided to finally stop. To simply stop and become a simple relic stored in a glass box. And she spend two hundred years just like that. During that time, masters had brought their students, in hopes that they would get chosen. And just like that, she watched them walk away with their heads low.

Sorcerers had taken to call her a fickle thing. Fickle! They were the fickle ones! _Fickly fickily flick flick fickle_ , she would often joke with herself inside her box of solicitude. For all she knew, they were the fickle ones! Two hundred years and no good sorcerer worthy of her came by. No sorcerer that met her requirements came by. Yes, she now had _requirements_. Two hundred years gave her time to think about it. She knew she didn't want to be alone, but she also didn't want to be with a sorcerer that would end up as one of those bad choices. So she waited. And waited. The only source of entertainment would be the memories of her beloved chosen ones. And in their honor, she made her six requirements be what had been her chosen ones best attributes.

Some of the sorcerers that passed by had two out of six and so on. They never met all her demands. And so she waited. And waited. She was patient, but being stuck in the glass box was driving her insane. Sometimes the Ancient One would visit her, see how she was doing. But that was pretty much the extent of her visits.

No more did she wanted to be alone. No more…

Until one day, while she lazily swung her sides out of boredom inside that stupid box, she felt a whole new presence in the sanctuary. It was overwhelming in a good way. Excitement ran through every fiber of her cloth.

"Anyone here?" A voice boomed throughout the room.

Uh! She liked the sound of his deep voice. But that was not a requirement. She paid closer attention to his aura. It felt strong, powerful even. But he had such an ego she almost turned him down as a choice. Then, there he was. A broken man that wanted nothing more than to regain control over his shaking hands. And he was sad too. Sad over so many mistakes he desperately wanted to make right again. Like a broken friendship.

He passed by her glass box and took a look at her. Cloak elevated herself a bit. She wanted to see who he was. And she liked what she saw. A spark of excitement ignited her existence.

And his aura irradiated light like the brightest star in the sky; it was almost blinding. She liked that. ' _I'll chose you. Let me be your new friend!'_

But despite his interest on her, he was trying to defend himself from something. Someone. So he started to walk away. Because a relic wasn't his priority at the moment.

' _Wait, don't go! I can help you!_ ' But he was gone. With sadness creeping upon her, she placed a piece of cloth over the glass. ' _Don't leave me alone…_ ' She looked away. ' _How can he not know I chose him? Idiot…_ '

It was then that the fight broke out and Cloak knew that the man needed help. She flew against the glass that held her all these years and extended her extremities. She felt free. She felt powerful again. She flew towards the sound of the battle and arrived just when the man was about to be killed by another. She quickly blocked the attack, but was not fast enough to prevent him being thrown down the stairs. Oh no, she was not about to lose this one!

She flew right after him and rested herself on his shoulders. With ease, she carried him up with a touch of dramatic flair. He summoned a weapon and attacked the evil man. It was then when she felt it. This one felt right; this was the chosen one she had been waiting for.

He was _intelligent_ like Aurora, _brave_ like young Chang, _extraordinary_ like Tania, _disciplined_ like Master Dimitri, maybe not as _hopeful_ as Mary Anne but he was getting there, she knew it, and he was _determined_ like Ernesto.

He was _special_. And she wouldn't feel lonely anymore.

Stephen Strange met all her _requirements_.


End file.
